...aka Sarah Palin
I'll admit it. Sarah Palin terrifies me. Well, it's not actually her that terrifies me, and it's not the cynical mindset that has produced the Governor and her mythology, it's the consequences of that mindset that terrifies me.
I was born in 1976, so I came to geo-political awareness in the '80's. The biggest pictures I have in my mind from those days are Ethiopia and HIV/AIDS. Those years, 1980-1992, represented famine and plague, so Reagan and Poppy Bush were the horsemen. The Bush/Cheney years are consumed by war and terror, so W is the third horseman. The fourth and final horseman is death, and you are forgiven for thinking that Old Man McCain is the horseman of Death. McCain is not Death, but he is Death's horse. Sarah Palin is Death.
I don't mean to get all religilous on you, as it's not really my intent. For a little while now, we've seen the Religious Right compare Obama to Hitler and the anti-Christ. We've heard the Greedy Old Plutocrats (and a great number of Hillary supporters) mock him as the "Messiah." So what do we do when so many so called conservatives are literally referring to Sarah Palin as "Saint Sarah" and "Sister Sarah?" Literally. They're calling her a gift from God, while missing the complete irony that they said the same thing about W, and we all know how well that's been going.
Pakistan's getting testy. Russia grows bold. China is ascendant. The Bush Administration has played the worst game of chess in all of political history. Cheney is the most powerful VP ever. McCain is a sickly, doddering old man. In this time of crisis, do we really want an incurious, Dominionist Christian, noob anywhere near the nuclear trigger?
Her supporters say yes. All the experience she needs is evidenced by the fact that she can see Russia from land in Alaska. This is why Sarah Palin is death. Ignorance and ambition is a powerful combination. Unfortunately, it's not a good powerful.
People who know better are trying to tell us that since most Americans don't know what the Bush Doctrine is, it's not important for Sarah Palin to know it. Other people have said it, so I'll echo the sentiment: I want my President to be demonstrably better than me. Someone who had the wisdom, judgement, and/or guidance to avoid life's many pitfalls. It's not OK for the President or VP to have a pregnant, unmarried teen daughter just because that's a situation many Americans deal with. It speaks to her leadership. If her own daughter doesn't respect the values that her mother teaches her, how can we expect a foreign leader to.
I've seen the diaries and blogs from Democrats that say that we shouldn't attack Sarah Palin, as Obama's not running against her. I say that people who follow that thought process are either naive or fools. Obama should not attack her. We should take every opportunity to spread the truth about her, her policies, and record.
I've also seen the blogs and diaries from Democrats saying that we shouldn't attack Palin, because the Freepers will get mad at the Netroots. Listen, the conservatives are going to attack DailyKos, HuffPo, etc. no matter what you do. Stop being cowards. You cave to extremists, and they haven't yet stopped beating you up. If you're going to go down, go down fighting.
There are certain people who don't want to debate you, they want to argue. There are people who don't want to fight you, they want to kill you. That's what Progressives just don't get. You do what they want, no matter how much you disagree, and they still call you godless traitors that deserve to be killed. Stop it. Man up, or woman up, or transgender up. Whatever you need to do to get some steel in your spine, you should do. We're in trouble, America is in trouble, and cowering everytime Sean Hannity raises his voice is not helping.
Sarah Palin brings the Irrationalists back to the party. She gives them open license to spit hate and spew venom. The lull in the culture wars is over, and if our side doesn't win this particular battle, then everything is lost. The only hope that John McCain has of winning this election is Sarah Palin. She is his sword and his aegis. Ignore her at your peril.
9.10.2008
9.04.2008
Hillary v3.0
You must give credit where credit is due: Hillary v3.0 came out and did what her masters programmed her to do. Namely, make baseless hit and run attacks against Obama, and then hide behind the concrete walls of the sexism card and the blame the media card. Watching Sarah Palin tonight finally allowed me to figure out the whole of McCain's strategery.
First, they tried to cast her as Hillary v2.0, to try and pull in independent women and Hillary dead-enders. That strategy was quickly abandoned after Palin was booed for trying to conjure up a Hillary glamour. Sarah Palin was then broken down and reconstructed into Hillary v3.0 in order to capitalize on Obama's perceived weakness against a white woman.
McCain can't match rhetoric or wits with Obama, so he needs a surrogate, and who better than Hillary. Unfortunately for McCain, Hillary wouldn't go for it, and neither would the GOP faithful, no matter how much they like to invoke her name these days. So now you may ask, why Hillary?
During the Democratic primaries, Hillary and her supporters released a litany of accusations against Obama, filled with venom and bile. Obama did not return too many of her hits for a variety of reasons, but mostly because he knew what it was: a trap.
Hillary tried, and succeeded at some level, to restart the dreaded Culture Wars. What better way than to show America an angry black man belittling a white woman? Now you may be thinking that America isn't like that anymore, but you would be thinking wrong. America hates angry black men even more than it hates black men. You think I'm wrong? Try comparing Rev Wright's sermons to Hagee's, then, look at the coverage. When you're done with that, compare Wright's sermons to Parsley's, Falwell's, and Pat Robertson's. Better yet, go look at Fred Phelps'. White people treat Farrakhan as if he is Satan himself, but people only complain about Fred Phelps...well, pretty much never, even though I've never seen Farrakhan or Wright protesting at a soldier's funeral. And neither of the two ever had to be bribed to not protest at a funeral for murdered Amish girls. But I digress.
McCain did indeed watch Hillary and learned, but he didn't pay attention to the end of the lecture. Hillary didn't lose because she re-ignited the Culture Wars a little to late. In McCain's view, she lost because she didn't go far enough. So McCain, being an old soldier, decided to do what old soldiers do best: escalate the war.
He sent his Hillary v3.0 onto the field for a test exercise. She hit her targets well. However, it remains to be seen as to how well she'll do in a less controlled situation. She has shown that she can give a good scripted punch, but will she be able to do it off the cuff? More importantly, can she take a hit? I'm sure that over the following days, we'll see the Democrats coming out in force, but I wonder how effective they'll be? I'm not too concerned about Team Obama, as I'm sure that they've already come up with a counter strategy.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out over the next few weeks. I eagerly await her first serious interview.
First, they tried to cast her as Hillary v2.0, to try and pull in independent women and Hillary dead-enders. That strategy was quickly abandoned after Palin was booed for trying to conjure up a Hillary glamour. Sarah Palin was then broken down and reconstructed into Hillary v3.0 in order to capitalize on Obama's perceived weakness against a white woman.
McCain can't match rhetoric or wits with Obama, so he needs a surrogate, and who better than Hillary. Unfortunately for McCain, Hillary wouldn't go for it, and neither would the GOP faithful, no matter how much they like to invoke her name these days. So now you may ask, why Hillary?
During the Democratic primaries, Hillary and her supporters released a litany of accusations against Obama, filled with venom and bile. Obama did not return too many of her hits for a variety of reasons, but mostly because he knew what it was: a trap.
Hillary tried, and succeeded at some level, to restart the dreaded Culture Wars. What better way than to show America an angry black man belittling a white woman? Now you may be thinking that America isn't like that anymore, but you would be thinking wrong. America hates angry black men even more than it hates black men. You think I'm wrong? Try comparing Rev Wright's sermons to Hagee's, then, look at the coverage. When you're done with that, compare Wright's sermons to Parsley's, Falwell's, and Pat Robertson's. Better yet, go look at Fred Phelps'. White people treat Farrakhan as if he is Satan himself, but people only complain about Fred Phelps...well, pretty much never, even though I've never seen Farrakhan or Wright protesting at a soldier's funeral. And neither of the two ever had to be bribed to not protest at a funeral for murdered Amish girls. But I digress.
McCain did indeed watch Hillary and learned, but he didn't pay attention to the end of the lecture. Hillary didn't lose because she re-ignited the Culture Wars a little to late. In McCain's view, she lost because she didn't go far enough. So McCain, being an old soldier, decided to do what old soldiers do best: escalate the war.
He sent his Hillary v3.0 onto the field for a test exercise. She hit her targets well. However, it remains to be seen as to how well she'll do in a less controlled situation. She has shown that she can give a good scripted punch, but will she be able to do it off the cuff? More importantly, can she take a hit? I'm sure that over the following days, we'll see the Democrats coming out in force, but I wonder how effective they'll be? I'm not too concerned about Team Obama, as I'm sure that they've already come up with a counter strategy.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out over the next few weeks. I eagerly await her first serious interview.
9.01.2008
"Conservative" Pretzel Logic
In the last few days, I've been lurking around some of the "conservative" sites. I do this often, because I like to know what the other side is thinking. Almost universally, the "conservatives" LOVE Sarah Palin. They love her so much, they've managed to create their own logic. It goes like this:
1. Palin has more experience than Obama because she has "Executive" experience.
The first problem with this logic is that if we use executive experience as the metric, then she is the most qualified person on the field, as neither Obama or Biden have executive experience. Then again, neither does McCain. So, why isn't she on top of the ticket?
Let's talk about executive experience. Let's talk about a black guy who has gone from some random senator the first black man in the US to secure a major party's nomination. Along the way, he beat one of the biggest names in US politics. In order to do that, he had to build an organization which in two years raised a record amount of money and made Barack Obama into a household name. You can't do that if you don't hire the right people. That's a big function of being an executive.
The executive position is a position of leadership. Obama convinced 2 million people to donate to his cause. On his way to the nomination, he secured 18 million votes. Palin got 114,697 votes in her gubernatorial bid. Who's the better leader? Who's the better executive? Even better, who would you want to run your campaign?
2. Palin has more foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia.
I don't know much about the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Russia, but I doubt that it's a major Russian military staging platform. I do know that in case of a national emergency, the POTUS is the CIC of the National Guard. I don't know if Gov. Palin has ever dealt directly with any leader from any other nation, but I'm quite confident that she's never had a conversation with Vladimir Putin.
It's real simple, people. The Alaska-Russia foreign policy shtick only works for the intellectually dishonest, low information, and/or low interest voters. It doesn't hold water. Obama went to the Middle East and Europe, and he had almost twice as many people come to a speech in Berlin than she had people come out to vote for her in Alaska.
If the metric of Palin's foreign policy experience is the distance between Alaska and Russia, let's step it up. The capital of Alaska is Juneau. Juneau is 2,578 miles away from Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and 4,550 miles away from Moscow, the capital of Russia. On the other hand, Moscow is 4,998 miles from Chicago, but Ottawa is 645 miles away from Chicago, leaving us with a difference of 1,485 in the distances between the capitals. Advantage, Obama.
I live in Philadelphia, PA, only 340 miles from Toronto. Thus, I must have foreign policy experience.
The metric is ridiculous on it's face, as is anyone who would use distance as a metric for who has more foreign policy experience.
3. I like that person, so it's OK.
I'm no moral absolutist, and I have no interest in beating up on a teenaged girl in a tough spot. Who I do want to beat up on are the hypocrites who say that teenaged girls having out of wedlock children is OK, but only for the people they like. The same people who went nuts over whether or not People magazine was glorifying Jamie Lynn Spears' "immoral behavior" and then blamed People magazine for the 17 girl high school pregnancy pact are the same people willing to give the Palin family a pass. I'm not just talking about the conservatives, either.
Similarly, Bill Clinton getting a blowjob is bad. John Edwards having and affair is bad. But John McCain? He was a POW! How DARE you! There were extenuating circumstances. Hey Sean Hannity, what's more important: country or family?
4. Playing the Cards
"Woe is me, woe is me," cried the Republican mouthpieces, "Obama played the race card." How about "He's an affirmative action candidate!" What Obama said:
Yet, when Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's VP selection, it was obvious that the selection had more to do with gender than anything else. Today, we had Laura Bush talking about the sexism that the Democrats need to avoid. We've got all of the Republican Stepford Pundits talking about misogyny in every criticism of Palin. The same Palin, who not so long ago, called Hillary a whiner. It's difficult to say as to whether or not Palin will be a whiner, as her first major interview is a softball from People magazine. There's no word on when they'll allow her out of her undisclosed location.
I can't help but wonder though: If she's so ready, and so experienced, why not let the media size her up? Why wasn't she on Meet the Press, or any of the other Sunday talk shows? We all know why, but if anyone says it, then they're sexists.
These people fuck me up. Twisting themselves into every position possible to make their case for how unfit Obama is to be president. Then twisting themselves into every other position to make the case for how prepared Palin is, even as both possibilites can't both be true at the same time.
Let's be honest, compared to McCain's resume, Obama's is razor thin. But that's why he's getting my vote. It's not Palin's lack of experience that worries me. Everybody has to start somewhere. As recently as December 2007, I thought Obama was joking. By February 5, I was a believer. Sarah Palin won't get the chance to really prove herself in that way. Not just to me, or Progressives in general, but to a lot of Americans, regardless of political ideology. And in the end, isn't America what it's really all about?
1. Palin has more experience than Obama because she has "Executive" experience.
The first problem with this logic is that if we use executive experience as the metric, then she is the most qualified person on the field, as neither Obama or Biden have executive experience. Then again, neither does McCain. So, why isn't she on top of the ticket?
Let's talk about executive experience. Let's talk about a black guy who has gone from some random senator the first black man in the US to secure a major party's nomination. Along the way, he beat one of the biggest names in US politics. In order to do that, he had to build an organization which in two years raised a record amount of money and made Barack Obama into a household name. You can't do that if you don't hire the right people. That's a big function of being an executive.
The executive position is a position of leadership. Obama convinced 2 million people to donate to his cause. On his way to the nomination, he secured 18 million votes. Palin got 114,697 votes in her gubernatorial bid. Who's the better leader? Who's the better executive? Even better, who would you want to run your campaign?
2. Palin has more foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia.
I don't know much about the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Russia, but I doubt that it's a major Russian military staging platform. I do know that in case of a national emergency, the POTUS is the CIC of the National Guard. I don't know if Gov. Palin has ever dealt directly with any leader from any other nation, but I'm quite confident that she's never had a conversation with Vladimir Putin.
It's real simple, people. The Alaska-Russia foreign policy shtick only works for the intellectually dishonest, low information, and/or low interest voters. It doesn't hold water. Obama went to the Middle East and Europe, and he had almost twice as many people come to a speech in Berlin than she had people come out to vote for her in Alaska.
If the metric of Palin's foreign policy experience is the distance between Alaska and Russia, let's step it up. The capital of Alaska is Juneau. Juneau is 2,578 miles away from Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and 4,550 miles away from Moscow, the capital of Russia. On the other hand, Moscow is 4,998 miles from Chicago, but Ottawa is 645 miles away from Chicago, leaving us with a difference of 1,485 in the distances between the capitals. Advantage, Obama.
I live in Philadelphia, PA, only 340 miles from Toronto. Thus, I must have foreign policy experience.
The metric is ridiculous on it's face, as is anyone who would use distance as a metric for who has more foreign policy experience.
3. I like that person, so it's OK.
I'm no moral absolutist, and I have no interest in beating up on a teenaged girl in a tough spot. Who I do want to beat up on are the hypocrites who say that teenaged girls having out of wedlock children is OK, but only for the people they like. The same people who went nuts over whether or not People magazine was glorifying Jamie Lynn Spears' "immoral behavior" and then blamed People magazine for the 17 girl high school pregnancy pact are the same people willing to give the Palin family a pass. I'm not just talking about the conservatives, either.
Similarly, Bill Clinton getting a blowjob is bad. John Edwards having and affair is bad. But John McCain? He was a POW! How DARE you! There were extenuating circumstances. Hey Sean Hannity, what's more important: country or family?
4. Playing the Cards
"Woe is me, woe is me," cried the Republican mouthpieces, "Obama played the race card." How about "He's an affirmative action candidate!" What Obama said:
"We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black? He’s got a feisty wife.”Did Obama play the dreaded race card? Or was he telling the truth? I guess it depends on your position. When I see this, this, this, and this, I think we can all lean towards truth. It's not all conservatives, and certainly not everybody who won't vote for Obama, but there is enough outright racism for him to make that assertion. And that doesn't even account for all of the "subtle" stuff.
Yet, when Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's VP selection, it was obvious that the selection had more to do with gender than anything else. Today, we had Laura Bush talking about the sexism that the Democrats need to avoid. We've got all of the Republican Stepford Pundits talking about misogyny in every criticism of Palin. The same Palin, who not so long ago, called Hillary a whiner. It's difficult to say as to whether or not Palin will be a whiner, as her first major interview is a softball from People magazine. There's no word on when they'll allow her out of her undisclosed location.
I can't help but wonder though: If she's so ready, and so experienced, why not let the media size her up? Why wasn't she on Meet the Press, or any of the other Sunday talk shows? We all know why, but if anyone says it, then they're sexists.
These people fuck me up. Twisting themselves into every position possible to make their case for how unfit Obama is to be president. Then twisting themselves into every other position to make the case for how prepared Palin is, even as both possibilites can't both be true at the same time.
Let's be honest, compared to McCain's resume, Obama's is razor thin. But that's why he's getting my vote. It's not Palin's lack of experience that worries me. Everybody has to start somewhere. As recently as December 2007, I thought Obama was joking. By February 5, I was a believer. Sarah Palin won't get the chance to really prove herself in that way. Not just to me, or Progressives in general, but to a lot of Americans, regardless of political ideology. And in the end, isn't America what it's really all about?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)